Category Archives: Latin

Latin, Myth and Story, Translating Metamorphoses, Writing

Into the Next Year

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Winter              New (Seed Catalog) Moon

The new year has begun, or as I thought about it in light of a post below, the next year has begun (Happy Next Year!).  It finds me following trails laid down in other times.

In the morning I went through, for the second or third time, parts of the Lycaon story that I have previously translated.  The goal now is to sight read the passage, translating with minimal helps.  Right now I have to write a definition over the word, perhaps a grammatical note, but the way to get fast is to read Latin as I read English.  That’s a long way off, but I can see the horizon line of that skill.  When I reach that point, I’ll be able to do serious scholarly work as well as learn great stories.

In the afternoon I picked up Loki’s Children, itching to get my fingers on the keyboard, putting some pages behind me.  Got waylaid looking up material about Thor, who is a very interesting god, probably the most loved god in Norse antiquity and mainly a giant-slayer, though he had a sideline in the inadvertent killing of dwarfs.  He killed Alvis, for example, by asking him questions until the sun rose and the light of dawn turned Alvis to stone. Alvis wanted to marry Thrud, Thor’s daughter.  Thrud, not exactly an elegant name, is it?  Maybe it sounds better in Old Norse.

 

The research turned out to be very useful, allowing me a thread I can use for building a strong throughline in Loki’s Children.  Sorry, but that part’s top secret.

 

Art and Culture, Bees, Faith and Spirituality, Garden, Great Wheel, Great Work, Latin, Our Land and Home, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Translating Metamorphoses

2014 Intentions

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Winter                                                         New (Seed Catalog) Moon
Having presented a prod toward humility and non-attachment here are some of my intentions and hopes for the New Year:

1.  A healthy and joyful family (including the dogs)

2. Sell Missing

3. Have substantial work done on Loki’s Children

4. Translate at least book one and two of Ovid’s Metamorphoses

5. Have a productive garden and orchard, beautiful flowers

6. Host a Beltane and a Samhain bonfire to open and close the growing season

7. Establish a new beeyard and have a decent honey harvest

8. Have a new and consistent way to include art in my life

9. Consider a new blog focused solely on the Great Wheel and the Great Work

10. Feed the autodidact with a few more MOOCs

Health, Latin, Tea, Writing

A Warm World

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Winter                                                                   Winter Moon

Those words, Winter/Winter Moon, above the posts signal the cozy world I inhabit right now.  It gets cold and snowy outside.  I turn on the green gas stove, sit down at my computer and find out what Ovid meant or what it is I will mean when I write Loki’s children.  My yixing teapots fill up and drain, infusion after infusion, Yunnan White Needle or Master Han’s Looseleaf Pu’er. One clear and flavorful, the other dark and rich.

(pu’er tea)

The light fades and I prepare to workout, that 45 minute to an hour moment of very physical activity.  I enjoy it, miss it when I don’t do it, but all the same I wish I didn’t need to do it.

After that there’s supper, some TV or a book, or both, with Kate, then later bedtime.  Over night the study cools down and the next morning I get up and turn on the green gas stove. It’s winter, cold and snowy outside.

Latin, Translating Metamorphoses

Off the Plateau

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Samhain                                                             Winter Moon

Greg says I’m working now at the level of an undergraduate who has finished school. Still a long ways to go.  He also said he was very pleased with my progress.  Nice to hear. I’ve been studying Latin for 4 years now and have become accustomed to the plateau, slog, plateau, slog nature of the work.

Recently it felt like I’d been slogging, not able to lift myself up to the next level.  Then, Greg pushed me to try a new method.  I did and I’m now working faster and more precisely.  Even so, the closer I get, the more the smaller details stick up, stub my toe.  That is, what used to be approximation, close but ok, now has to turn into literal Latin, then idiomatic English.

Somewhere ahead of me is trust.  A point where I can trust my own work without a need to consult Greg.  At least not very often.  That’s more years yet ahead.

Here’s what I would like to achieve with this work:  1.  My own translation of 606Metamorphoses and the resultant embedding of its stories in my memory.  2.  A commentary for certain parts.  3.  The renewal of interest in Ovid at the elementary, middle school, high school and introductory college level.

These are, I know, ambitious goals, but they nest together, one reinforcing the other. Number 3 represents my belief that these stories in their original form are so good that they can easily compete with graphic novels, movies and simplifications.  Hey, who wouldn’t like a good story like Pentheus where a mother literally tears her son apart?

Latin, Myth and Story, Translating Metamorphoses

A Bit of Divine Pragmatism

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Samhain                                                                     Winter Moon

Another 6 lines of the Lycaon story.  Sort of.  Lycaon’s story per se ends with the piece I published the other day.  It continues, however, as Ovid recounts how the enraged Jupiter goes from transforming Lycaon into a wolf to plans for a deluge, a wiping out of humans. The other gods are mostly okay with this except they do ask, “who will carry incense onto our altars?”  A bit of divine pragmatism.

Must of been eating my Latin wheaties because the translation is coming faster and faster now, the results of my work most often squaring with the Loeb English translation.  That’s not to say they match but I understand how Miller got his translation and how mine differs in a way that makes sense.  The Loeb’s purpose, as I understand it, is to offer a close to literal reading of the Latin, though once you learn the Latin it’s clear how far from the Latin even the literal readings are.  This is not criticism; rather, it shows the gap between languages and how bridging those gaps is a quirky business, yielding all manner of contraptions from elegant trussed spans to rickety ropes.

This is what I got into it for, yeah these many years ago.  After studying the Bible, written in Hebrew and Greek, you learn the need for careful attention to this work, exegesis.  I never mastered either Hebrew or Greek, but I really wanted to experience the world behind the Wizard’s curtain of the translator.

As a vehicle for that journey, I chose the Metamorphoses because it is the reference text for the entry of Greek and Roman mythology into the Western stream of the humanities. This way I ground myself in mythology while satisfying a more abstract desire.  It’s working.

Art and Culture, Latin, Translating Metamorphoses

Lycaon

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Samhain                                                               Winter Moon

Work on Ovid continues.  Here is a link to a Google Art Project gallery of works inspired by Ovid.  It is far from complete, but it does represent a beginning on an additional project related to the Metamorphoses.  I would like to find as many works as I can that relate directly to the Metamorphoses.  This is an art history project I’ve assigned to myself.

Below is the somewhat polished text that lays out the tale of Lycaon from Book I of the Metamorphoses, v.163-239.

The work is mine, the good and the flawed.  I’m still learning.

 

163 Saturn’s son looked out from the highest citadel of heaven,

164 Lamenting deeds not yet made known,

165 He recalls the foul banquets at Lycaon’s tables,

166 And in his divine heart burns a vast, fitting wrath.

167 He summons a council and the gods gathered quickly when called.

168 The way is lofty, clear in cloudless heaven,

169 The Milky Way, extraordinary in its brilliance.

170 On the Milky Way is the path to those above, the temple of Thundering Jupiter,

171 His royal home. Through folding doors

172 On the right and left, the forecourt of the noble God’s home swelled with visitors,

173 (the lesser gods live in lesser dwellings): here the mighty

174 and glorious Gods sat down their own Penates.

175 This place is, if boldness might be permitted in my expression,

176 Something I have no fear to declare the Palatine hill of great heaven.

177 When the gods above sat in that marble hall,

178 Mighty Jupiter leaned upon his ivory staff

179 And shook his terrible hair over and over again,

180 Moving the earth, the sea and the stars.

181 His face, angry, then displayed a look horrible beyond measure.

182 Alas, distressed, I was not then in control

183 Over the world. While everyone was making ready,

184 The many armed giants sought to capture heaven.

185 Although the enemy was savage, yet that war had its origin

186 only within one tribe, from within one race.

187 Now for me, Nereus surrounds the whole word with sound.

188 The mortal race must be destroyed: I swear by the river

189 Below, sinking beneath the earth into a Stygian grove!

190 Altogether better testing: but,

191 The incurable body is cut away by the sword and no part must be left intact.

192 Nymphs, fauns, satyrs dwelling in mountains and woods,

193 these are demi-gods, country divinities.

194 Because we do not yet deem them worthy of the honor of heaven,

195 We dedicated a certain place for them to dwell, we granted them the earth.

(Nymph and Fauns – Julius Kronberg)

196 Or perhaps sufficient, o high gods, they will be looked upon with trust, those demigods.

197 For me, who has the thunderbolt and who has you and who rules over you,

198 The infamous Lycaon conceived a savage ambush.

199 All the gods cried out and with burning zeal

200 Demanded extreme measures. {Thus, with impious hand he rages

201 To eliminate Caesar’s name from Roman posterity.

202 Stunned, the human race has been plunged

203 Into a great dread of ruin.

204 For you, Augustus, your pleasing devotion

205 Was not smaller than that of Jupiter’s,} who after that,

206 With voice and hand restrained the grumbling, the silence of all held.

207 The shouts subsided as the weight of Jupiter’s seriousness pressed down upon them,

208 Jupiter broke the silence by speaking again to this gathering.

209 “Certainly that one suffered punishment, you no longer need worry.

210 However, I will tell you about that crime which must be punished.

211 The infamy of this time has reached our hearing.

212 I intend to fly down from high Olympus to the earth,

213 And as a god hidden in human likeness, a wanderer.

214 It would take too long to recount crimes so great as have been reported anywhere,

215 the bad report itself bore little truth.

216 I had to cross the terrible Maneala’s, refuges of wild beasts,

217 with icy-cold Cyllene and the pine-groves of Lycaeus:

218 Hence, I enter the state of Arcadia and the inhospitable home

219 Of the tyrant, the late hour pulling forth the night.

220 I furnished signs that a god had come, and the people had begun to

221 Pray: at first Lycaon laughs at the devout prayers,

222 Soon he says “This god must be measured, a test will reveal him,

223 or he must be a mortal. The truth will not be in doubt.”

224 He had planned to destroy me

225 weighted with sleep and not expecting dark death.

226 Therefore he is not yet measured against my strength: one of the race of Molossa

227 Was put to death for an ambush, his throat opened by a sword.

228 A portion of him softens, half-dead joints in

229 Boiling water, another portion roasted by placing under the fire.

230 At the same time he put that down on the table, {with avenging fire

231 I overturned the house upon the ruler’s worthy penates.}

232 Terrified, he fled, and having reached the quiet countryside,

233 He howled and in vain he was trying to talk.

234 He was transformed into a beast by lust

235 Accustomed to slaughter, and he now rejoices in blood.

(Lycaon  Melissa Burns, 1978 The wolf-metamorphosis his glaring look remains.)

236 His clothes have changed to shaggy hair, his arms into legs:

237 He is made into a wolf but retains the human shape of his foot.

238 His gray hair is the same, as is the fierceness of his face,

239 the same glitter is in his eyes, the same shape of wildness.

Latin, Myth and Story, Translating Metamorphoses, Writing

A Joint Softens in Boiling Water

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Samhain                                                           Winter Moon

Started using Dramatica this morning, entering characters, thinking about plot progression and story points.  It forced me into a new way of considering the task of writing a novel, something I want.  If you’re not pushing, you’re going backwards.

It also intimidates me.  My confidence level is never at its highest with writing, but I decided a while back to stick with it, keep on typing.  With Missing I focused on revision.

With Loki’s Children I plan to focus on the craft, creating interesting characters who do things you want to follow and taking the story to a satisfying conclusion.  I’ve considered those things before, of course, they’re basic, but I’ve never given them attention before writing.  I always dove right in.

The new novel feeling for me is like standing on a path that leads into a distant land, a place mostly invisible, over the horizon and writing moves me along the path, opening up new vistas, new experiences as I go.  It’s a lot like travel, maybe exactly like it.  I leave home, familiar territory, behind and go off to see how they do things far away.  And I report back about what I find.

Spent more time with Lycaon this morning, too.  Here’s a snippet, still requires some work, but it shows the heart of Lycaon’s crime.  It’s Jupiter who is speaking:

He had planned to destroy me,

225 weighted with sleep and not expecting dark death.

226 He is not yet measured against my strength: one of the race of Molossa

227 Was put to death for an ambush, his throat opened by a sword.

228 A portion of him softens, half-dead joints in

229 Boiling water, another portion roasted by placing under the fire.

 

Latin, Translating Metamorphoses

Polishing

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Samhain                                                        Winter Moon

By tomorrow I’ll have a first pass at a polished translation of Lycaon to post here.  I say first pass because it will represent my best translation from the Latin, trying to use English to communicate the sense and sensibility of Ovid’s poetry.  Meter, at this point anyhow, is beyond me, so it will be more prose than poetry though I’m going to keep it in stanzas and verses.

A second pass will involve going over the translation again with a thesaurus and other translations, looking for ideas and phrasing that might change my mind about how to approach a particular verse.  Then, I’ll produce another translation.  That one I plan to discuss in some depth with Greg.  When I’ve finished with him, I might send it to a Latin scholar or two for an outside reaction.

Once I feel comfortable with my approach, I’ll tuck into the same process for as much of the whole work as I decide to tackle.  At some point, soon, I want to return to De Rerum Natura because it seemed pretty interesting and Lucretius’ Latin is different from Ovid’s.

First off today though is back into the research for Loki’s Children.

Latin, Writing

Longue Duree

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Samhain                                                     Winter Moon

Latin.  Session with tutor today.  Greg says I’m doing the right things.  We’re discussing nuances of translation now, not always my missteps with grammar or case.  Not even mostly.  Latin and writing novels both require a view that goes beyond the immediate horizon, far beyond it.  At least for me.

(Zeus overthrows Cronos Van Haarlem 1588)

My first session with Greg was on January 28, 2010.  This January I will begin my 5th year as a Latin student.  I’m much, much closer to my goal of translating the Metamorphoses; in fact, I’m doing it, just not at the level of proficiency that I want.  I can see getting there, now; though in October, when I began again after spending the summer with the garden and the bees, I despaired.  The lesson from that, I think, is not to stop.  It requires constant practice.

Feeling good about it today.

Art and Culture, Humanities, Latin, Myth and Story, Translating Metamorphoses

Lycaon

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Samhain                                                              New (Winter) Moon

Today I finished translating the story of Lycaon in Ovid.  Most of it anyhow.  Some still awaits consultation with Greg.  I plan to go back and forth through this story until I have a clean, idiomatic and interesting text.  That’s the next couple of days, maybe more. Probably more.  Lycaon’s tale is the origin of the word Lycanthrope, a coined word for werewolf.  Lycanthropy is the study of werewolves.

In this story Jupiter, angered by an Arcadian king’s (Lycaon) human sacrifices, comes to earth to investigate.  When Lycaon tries to serve him human flesh, a test to see if he is truly divine, Jupiter in a rage turns King Lycaon into a wolf, but a wolf with human feet, eyes, grayish hair and the former king’s wild and fierce countenance.

Translating it word by word, line by line, idea by idea and then going back to create a polished English version is the task I set myself so long ago, producing a translation of Metamorphoses so I can embed these stories in my own consciousness.  Yes, there are over 15,000 verses in total, and I’m only at verse 235 (plus several hundred other verses I translated, stories I chose to keep me interested) but I’m now beginning to see myself as a translator and not only a student.  That’s a big transition.

I will post the text when I finish.